Monday 26 February 2018

2017 Corruptions Index results: Australia slipping some more


Whilst another investigative journalist is reported to have been murdered,  the annual Corruption Perceptions Index results have been released.

This year’s Index highlights that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, while further analysis shows journalists and activists in corrupt countries risking their lives every day in an effort to speak out.

This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. Unfortunately, compared to recent years, this poor performance is nothing new.

Since 2012, several countries significantly improved their index score, including Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and the United Kingdom, while several countries declined, including Syria, Yemen and Australia.

For detailed results read: https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017

"No activist or reporter should have to fear for their lives when speaking out against corruption. Given current crackdowns on both civil society and the media worldwide, we need to do more to protect those who speak up."
          Patricia Moreira Managing Director Transparency International
 

Top Trump aide indicted thanks to inability to change a PDF


Investigators paying careful attention to movement of documents reveal evidence to support indictment. 

Top Trump aide indicted thanks to paper trail from his inability to convert a PDF to DOC

Monday 12 February 2018

Thousands of websites across the globe have fallen victim to crypto-mining malware

 "A security researcher has discovered thousands of legitimate websites — many belonging to local governments and government agencies — running scripts that secretly force visitors’ computers to mine cryptocoins."

"Cryptojacking is a problem most commonly associated with the seedier aspects of the Internet. Some sites often struggle to attract typical advertisers: like those in the porn and file sharing spaces. In order to keep the lights on, they instead resort to using their visitor’s spare CPU power to mine cryptocoins."

"Users with these scripts running find their computers inexplicably slower. Their machines might also run hot. If they’re on a mobile device, battery life will be adversely affected."

"It’s pretty astonishing to see cryptojacking scripts running on legitimate government webpages."

Read more at:

The Australian Attorney-General's office advise, subject to same researcher's findings, that "[T]housands of websites across the globe have fallen victim to crypto-mining malware, after using a popular web tool designed to help people with vision impairment, dyslexia and low literacy."

 Read more at:


Monday 5 February 2018

The Billion Dollar Bust: Inside the undercover sting to catch the world's most wanted money launderer



The Altaf Khanani money laundering organization (Khanani MLO), a transnational organized crime group, was based in Pakistan. The group facilitated illicit money movement between, among others, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), United States, UK, Canada,and Australia, and was responsible for laundering billions of dollars in organized crime proceeds annually. The Khanani MLO offered money laundering services to a diverse clientele, including Chinese, Colombian, and Mexican organized crime groups and individuals associated with Hizballah and designated terrorist organizations. The Khanani MLO was also involved in the movement of funds for the Taliban, and Altaf Khanani, the group’s leader, is known to have had relationships with Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Dawood Ibrahim, al-Qaeda, and Jaish-e-Mohammed.


Watch the video detailing the 2015 undercover operation which eventually led to the dismantling of this Money Laundering network at:
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/the-billion-dollar-bust/9398290

For further details see:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1294812

Thursday 1 February 2018

“It’s harder to get a card at a library than it is to be registered as a director at Australian Securities & Investments Commission.” John Winter, ARITA

The Australian government is proposing director identification number as a weapon to counter company phoenixing. 



John Winter, chief executive of the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association (ARITA) commented recently on these new laws saying, “The problem isn’t a lack of law – it’s a lack of enforcement. The lack of prosecution, and very low-level penalties, can lead business directors to make a value judgement that the cost of being found to have broken the rules is so low that they’d be mad not to phoenix the business." 
For the phoenixing article read:
https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2018/02/01/new-laws-phoenix-activity


The related phoenixing research also highlights the other current issue of the difficultly in identifying control and beneficial ownership.
 For the related three year Detection Disruption & Enforcement Phoenixing research project report see:
http://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/2274131/Phoenix-Activity-Recommendations-on-Detection-Disruption-and-Enforcement-Melbourne-Law-School-and-Monash-Business-School-February-2017-002.pdf

Where are the best jurisdictions to hide money?

On January 30th 2018 the Tax Justice Network published the Financial Secrecy Index ranking 112 jurisdictions according to their secrecy and the scale of their offshore financial activities. 

"An estimated $21 to $32 trillion of private financial wealth is located, untaxed or lightly taxed, in secrecy jurisdictions around the world. Secrecy jurisdictions - a term we often use as an alternative to the more widely used term tax havens - use secrecy to attract illicit and illegitimate or abusive financial flows. "

And the top ten are:








Read more at: https://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/introduction/fsi-2018-results


















































































































 


SFO UK combing through cases for signs of 'unexplained wealth' after implementation of new powers

David Green CB QC, Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Britain’s leading fraud prosecutor, says he is combing through his case load to detect signs that criminals are using the country to hide illicit wealth, as new powers come into effect that allow authorities to seize the proceeds of “dirty money”. 

London has long been seen as a favoured destination for corrupt cash. Transparency International, an anti-corruption group, says it has identified 4.4 billion pounds worth of property in Britain that should be considered as possible candidates for the new Unidentified Wealth Order (UWO) powers. 


For article go to:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-fraud/uk-fraud-prosecutor-combs-through-cases-for-signs-of-unexplained-wealth-idUKKBN1FK2QI

To watch David Green's interview about these new powers and how they may apply, go to:
https://rusi.org/event/discussion-david-green-cb-qc


Conclusions from Global workshop for financial investigators on detection, investigation, seizure and confiscation of cryptocurrencies

On 15 and 16 January 2018, Europol, INTERPOL and the Basel Institute on Governance jointly organised in Basel, Switzerland, a workshop for financial investigators on the detection, investigation, seizure and confiscation of cryptocurrencies. The event was attended by more than 60 financial investigators from money laundering, cybercrime and financial intelligence units from 32 different countries, together with experts in asset recovery and relevant private sector representatives.


At the end of the workshop, participants agreed upon a set of conclusions, which included:
  • Increase information sharing in the field of money laundering and digital currencies through the use of channels such as Europol, INTERPOL, the Egmont Group and FIU.net.
  • Regulate digital currency exchangers and wallet providers under current anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing legislation in line with obligations already pending with the financial sector.
  • Agree on a clear definition of concepts such as cryptocurrencies, digital currency exchanger, wallet provider and mixer for them to be included in the EU legal framework.
  • Take action against digital currency mixers/tumblers, designed to anonymise transactions, which burdens the work of law enforcement agencies to detect and trace suspicious transactions.       
For more read on at:
 https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/global-workshop-for-financial-investigators-detection-investigation-seizure-and-confiscation-of-cryptocurrencies